Former White House strategist Steve Bannon stepped down from his position at Breitbart News on Tuesday, less than a week after he excoriated Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr in book excerpts obtained by the Guardian, and days after he expressed “regret” over those remarks.

Bannon criticized Trump in the bestselling book Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff, and publication of those remarks caused a rancorous split with the president. His comments, which included a statement calling Donald Trump Jr’s behavior in 2016 meeting with Russians “treasonous”, sparked a ferocious response from the White House.

In a statement last week, Trump said: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.” Not long afterward, he dubbed Bannon “Sloppy Steve” in a series of tweets. Trump’s lawyers later sent Bannon a cease and desist letter, and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Breitbart should “consider” ousting Bannon.

In a story posted on Breitbart’s website without a byline, it was announced “Stephen K Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012. Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.”

The story also included a quote from Bannon, who did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform,” he said in the post.

Bannon rejoined Breitbart in August 2017, a year after he had taken leave from the website to become chief strategist for Trump’s then-flailing presidential campaign. He impressed Trump by steering his campaign through its deepest crisis, when the Access Hollywood tapes revealed the Republican nominee boasting about sexually assaulting women. Later, in the White House, he played a key role early in Trump’s administration push for controversial policies, such as a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and the United States’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

When Bannon returned to Breitbart, he initially celebrated the reunion. In an interview with the Weekly Standard that month, he said: “Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt.”

The president also praised his former strategist at the time, tweeting: “Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews … maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!”

But since his return, Bannon has increasingly felt pressed to choose between politics and Breitbart. He chose the former, apparently because of the effect his campaign work was having on Breitbart as a news organization. In recent months, the former White House aide had actively endorsed several insurgent Republican candidates, including Alabama Republican Roy Moore, who ran a successful primary against a Republican and a failed general election against a Democrat, Doug Jones.

What effect Bannon’s departure will have on Breitbart remains unclear. After the 2012 death of its founder, Andrew Breitbart, Bannon molded its editorial vision to match his nationalist views. During his absence and under the leadership of editor-in-chief Alex Marlow, the site took what was perceived be a slightly more subdued tone. Bannon’s departure may also lead to the website cutting costs. as it had long paid a premium attract to journalists to work for the controversial site.

Choosing one of the world’s most famous cartoon characters for a fake driving licence might seem like something only Homer Simpson himself would do, but this week police pulled over a driver who had done just that.

A unidentified male driver was stopped by police in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, this week and presented the officer with the licence, featuring the character from The Simpsons.

The spoof licence came complete with an image of Simpson saying his “D’oh!” catchphrase, a signature and address. Thames Valley police said in a tweet: “The driver’s car was seized and he was reported for driving with no insurance and driving without a proper licence. D’oh!”

Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking m in damages from Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic actor whose professional name is Stormy Daniels and who claims to have had an affair with the future president in 2006 and 2007.

A lawyer representing Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants, claimed in federal court on Friday that Clifford had violated a non-disclosure agreement as many as 20 times.

Clifford has said she was secretly paid 0,000 to keep quiet. Cohen, who has said he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign for making the payment, has not explained what the payment was for or whether Trump was aware of it.

According to Friday’s filing with the US district court for the central district of California, Cohen now plans to force the dispute from state to federal court and into closed-door arbitration.

Trump has also obtained a restraining order against Clifford.

Clifford’s counsel, Michael Avenatti, said the threat to pursue his client for millions and efforts to force the matter under the cover of anonymity amounted to bullying.

“To put it simply – they want to hide the truth from the American people. We will oppose this effort at every turn,” Avenatti said.

“The fact that a sitting president is pursuing over m in bogus ‘damages’ against a private citizen, who is only trying to tell the public what really happened, is truly remarkable. Likely unprecedented in our history. We are not going away and we will not be intimidated by these threats.”

The latest turn in the dispute trails what promises to be an explosive CBS 60 Minutes’ interview with Clifford, scheduled for broadcast next Sunday.

This week, Avenatti claimed six other women had similar stories to tell, two of whom were similarly under non-disclosure agreements. He also said Clifford had been threatened.

Avenatti has claimed the non-disclosure agreement signed by his client is invalid because Trump failed to sign it too. If the courts determine the NDA is valid, the actor could face a penalty of m for each violation.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, has rejected the notion that Trump approved the payment to Clifford. The White House has also denied Trump had an affair with Daniels.

Hours before a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed on Thursday, killing six people, engineers met the construction manager, state transportation officials and university representatives to discuss a crack on the structure.

The Miami-based university detailed the two-hour meeting in a statement released early on Saturday.

It said the session included a technical presentation by Figg Bridge Engineers that “concluded there were no safety concerns and the crack did not compromise the structural integrity of the bridge”.

The meeting ended at 11am. Three hours later, the bridge fell.

The Florida department of transportation (FDot) announced late on Friday that an engineer hired by the university left a voicemail message with the state agency two days before the collapse, seeking to draw attention to the crack.

In the call, which was not picked up until after collapse and has been released to the public, engineer W Denney Pate mentioned “some cracking that’s been observed on the north end” of the bridge but said he did not think it was a safety issue.

The state transportation department also said one of its consultants attended a meeting with the FIU bridge team hours before the collapse. It did not say the crack in the bridge had been discussed.

The National Transportation Safety Board chief investigator, Robert Accetta, said on Friday it was too soon to tell if cracks played a role in the bridge collapse.

“I would have to say that a crack in the bridge does not necessarily mean it’s unsafe,” he said.

University officials have said engineers had performed stress tests to determine the “resiliency of the concrete” in the bridge.

Late on Saturday police said that they believed they had recovered all the bodies of the victims of the collapse. Juan Perez, Miami-Dade police chief, told news media that they had recovered all five bodies of people in vehicles crushed under the bridge. A sixth person died at the hospital.

While police believed all victims had been accounted for, they nevertheless said the search and rescue was continuing.

One victim’s uncle raged against what he called the “complete incompetence” and “colossal failure” that allowed people to drive on the six-lane highway beneath the unfinished concrete span.

“Why they had to build this monstrosity in the first place to get children across the street?” said Joe Smitha, whose niece, Alexa Duran, was crushed. “Then they decided to stress test this bridge while traffic was running underneath it?”

Authorities have not released Duran’s name, but her family has said she died. The FIU freshman was studying political science.

In an emailed statement on Saturday night, the Florida International University president, Mark Rosenberg, said it would hold a moment’s silence for the victims at 1:47pm on Monday – the same time that the bridge went down.